OF THE POLAR SEA. 



159 



winter clothing. Their shoes, or rather 

 short boots, for they tie round the ancle, 

 are made of soft dressed moose-skins, and 

 during the winter they wrap several pieces 

 of blanket round their feet. 



They are fond of European articles of 

 dress, considering it as mean to be dressed 

 entirely in leather, and the hunters are gene- 

 rally furnished annually with a capot or great 

 coat, and the women with shawls, printed 

 calicoes, and other things very unsuitable to 

 their mode of life, but which they wear in 

 imitation of the wives of the traders; all 

 these articles, however showy they may be 

 at first, are soon reduced to a very filthy 

 condition by the Indian custom of greasing 

 the face and hair with soft fat or marrow, 

 instead of washing them with water. This 

 practice they say preserves the skin soft, 

 and protects it from cold in the winter, and 

 the moschetoes in summer ; but it renders 

 their presence disagreeable to the olfactory 

 organs of an European, particularly when 

 they are seated in a close tent and near a 

 hot fire. 



